Ever wonder what it would be like to compete against Sergei Bubka in pole vault? Today's American olympic athletes are doing that in their training:
CHULA VISTA, Calif. - As often as he likes, American pole vault star Toby Stevenson competes against Sergey Bubka, his idol and world record holder.In tandem, they race down the runway and fling themselves over bars more than 19 feet above the ground.
That's some Olympian feat, considering that Bubka is retired.
Actually, these head-to-head duels play out on a computer screen, superimposed in digital video overlay. It's part of the latest way USA Track and Field is preparing its runners, jumpers and throwers for Athens.
Since October, USATF has been using a software program called Dartfish to help athletes evaluate their performance through real-time digital video analysis.
..."It's a big reason for my success," Stevenson said. "I jump, and between every jump I watch my jump, and after practice I watch every jump on Dartfish."Stevenson can look at a jump in real time, quarter time, half time or frame-by-frame. He can compare up to four different jumps at once, or have two jumps overlaid to see how consistent he is.
Or he can vault versus Bubka. The technicians who run the DV program converted analog video of Bubka to digital with a few extra steps outside of Dartfish, which grew out of a Swiss company in 1998 with early success in ski racing broadcasting.
"Obviously it's not Dartfish alone, but yeah, I increased my PR (personal record) 10 inches this year," Stevenson said. "I've got the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 jumps in the world right now."
This story about InstantStadia is really cool:
HAMPDEN Park’s transformation into an ‘instant’ athletics stadium is the key element of the audacious and innovative bid being mounted by Glasgow to win the right to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Scotland on Sunday has learned that Hampden will host the main athletics events, but the hallowed turf of one of the most famous football stadia in the world will not be used.Instead a ‘platform’ will be built several feet above the existing pitch and its surrounds, on top of which will be created a full Olympic-size athletics arena with an eight-lane state-of-the-art running track, long-jump pit, high-jump and pole-vault zones plus a full throwing area for shot put, javelin, discus and hammer.
At a stroke, the instant-stadium plan with a wind and water-tight platform supporting the arena will overcome Glasgow’s biggest drawback as it prepares its bid - the lack of a purpose-built athletics stadium of sufficient size to host the Games.
Since its controversial £65m redevelopment, Hampden Park’s playing area has not been of sufficient size to host a full athletics programme as demanded by the Commonwealth Games. By extending the platform over several rows of seats at the front of each stand, the instant arena will meet all the requirements for Olympic-standard international track and field events.
The technology exists to create such ‘floating’ arenas - Sapporo Dome in Japan was a World Cup venue in 2002 despite the entire pitch being kept outside the stadium and rolled into the venue on a cushion of air only a short while before the matches.
Technology levels the playing field -- literally. As cities and countries jockey for major sporting events, this will help smaller nations and localities step to compete with larger competitors.
This piece compares Schumi and Lance and finds Schumi saying Lance is the man:
Michael Schumacher, who takes fewer holidays than any of his more flamboyant peers, put his achievements into perspective by admitting that they pale in comparison with what Armstrong has done."What he is doing is so special," the German driver said. "I know what it means to do what I'm doing, but to do what he is doing is really, really massive and impressive."
The piece also notes:
Unlike Schumacher, Armstrong does not enjoy the benefit of a racing machine which is obviously better and faster than all of the rest.The Americans is powered by human will and the German's by modern technology.
This is s slight oversimplification. As I've noted here, Schumi benefits from more money and great technology, but he's also a phenomenal driver -- smart, disciplined, brilliant work ethic. Lance has all those qualities too, but as I noted here, he also has terrific technology. It's a complicated picture.
The breathless press release aside ("A fraction of a second hesitation can mean certain failure as they pursue previously unheard of records"), this is an interesting new equipment development.
Hitters testing the Sting-Free bat grip documented it reduces as much as 80% of the harmful vibration and sting when the bat hit the baseball. Baseball players can use the high-tech bat grip to limit sting, hesitation and flinching.Useful as a sports psychology tool, this high-tech composite bat grip provides greater damping of vibrations and is endorsed by sports medicine experts. The hitter has now regained the psychological edge.
These bat grips offer a distinct advantage over the traditional foam, synthetic and tire rubber grips with cushioned backing that most baseball players use to absorb the vibration and sting. The traditional grips with cushioned backing stop only 10% to 20% of the impact. Most of the harmful vibration and shock can now be limited with Sting-Free grips.
Putting aside for the moment how anyone could know what percent of the 'harmful vibration' was diminished (the story claims 80%), I can attest that vibrating bats can feel like the physical equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to a young hitter. So if this stuff works, it could be a cool new development. Interestingly, pro tennis allows for anti-vibration attachments to rackets. But MLB would never allow anything like this. The question is whether or not pine tar could be tweaked or developed in a way so that it had anti-vibration properties as well.
Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, another former Billy Beane boy, has been doing great things with the Mets pitching staff:
Peterson cannot be confined to the stadium, using his spare time to develop a baseball-specific laptop computer and a software program that computes data on every hitter. Peterson tells his pitchers what a given hitter is batting against 1-2 changeups on the inside corner of the plate, and what they should throw as a result."There's a reason why we have the best pitching staff in baseball," said Tom Glavine, who is making a bid for comeback player of the year.
It's impossible to overstate the importance of Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball" on sports journalism. It has presented baseball with an entirely new story line. That's an impressive feat for a journalist to have pulled off. As Lewis said, he fell in love with the story of guys using brains and bits and bytes to gain a competitive edge. It's a great story, and it's continuing to pay journlistic and narrative dividends.
Europe has created something called the Lab of Tomorrow that combines sports with science and technology to help children learn. It sounds cool and scary all at once.
A game of soccer, volleyball or basketball may seem like an unconventional way to start a science lesson, but in the Lab of Tomorrow sports and other real-life activities merge with theory to create a new educational environment based on the premise that if playing is fun, learning can be too. Lab of Tomorrow, a project funded under the European Commission’s IST Programme, developed a family of tiny, programmable devices that can be imbedded in clothing, footballs and other items to monitor the wearer’s heart rate, their running pace or the acceleration of a ball. This practical information can be translated into examples of science theory, raising interest and motivation among students, and improving the learning process.“For students and teachers it represents a major qualitative upgrade to physics teaching, something that is particularly important at a time when studies show interest in science is declining among students of high school age,” explains project manager Sofoklis Sotiriou at Ellinogermaniki Agogi, a Greek school that is overseeing Lab of Tomorrow’s implementation. “We believe the use of advanced technology keeps the motivation of students high because it connects real-life situations with science. And such motivation would seem an evident result of teachers being able to tell students: ‘wear this, go play and then study what you have done’.”
In an interesting piece that reads a bit too much like a QVC infomercial at times, this author focuses on the role technology is playing in giving athletes a competitive edge through better equipment.
To be competitive in sports these days, many athletes are turning to their gear to give them a competitive edge. Technology and science have combined to create a host of new products -- many very affordable -- that aren't disappointing.
The author looks at UnderArmor, shox shoes and heart monitors.
There's an interesting Slate piece on the allegations of Marion Jones' insulin abuse by her ex-husband C.J. Hunter.
How is an athlete's performance aided by insulin, a substance more commonly used by diabetics to control their blood sugar?Chiefly by boosting the body's supply of glycogen, a crucial muscle fuel. As diabetics know well, insulin, which is produced naturally by the pancreas, is a hormone that regulates blood-sugar levels by enabling the breakdown of glucose. The hormone stimulates this process (called glycolysis) by transporting glucose into muscle cells, where it is metabolized. If the muscles are flooded with too much glucose at once, however, they store the excess in the form of glycogen, a complex carbohydrate that provides energy to muscles during physical exertion. The more glycogen an athlete possesses, the longer she can keep her muscles pumping.
Marginal Revolution is the best blog not part of the Corante group. If you read no other blog, read Marginal Revolution and you will be smarter.
Anyway, the folks there say part of Lance's genius is he's a damn-fine game theorist:
Armstrong's victory in the Tour de France is a testament to his awesome physical skills but he and his team should also be credited with a sound understanding of game theory. Game theory arises in the tour because it's important to take advantage of the draft created by riders in front. The dynamics of draft alone are fairly simple but add to this that the leader is not necessarily winning, the use of teams, the many stages, the different terrain etc. and you have a very complex strategic space.
Of all the sports transformed by technology, one I hadn't considered much is bowling:
Kegel, which was formed in 1981 by John Davis and partners, designs and manufactures lane conditioning machines and replacement parts and develops and blends chemicals used in their machines.... Top tour bowlers such as Pete Weber, Brian Voss, Chris Barnes, Jason Couch and Steve Hoskins have visited Kegel to work on their games. But it's the league and recreational bowler who, perhaps unknowingly, benefits most from the company's research and development.
Lane machines can be programmed to apply oil in an infinite number of patterns. At most centers, a pattern that promotes a consistent path from the foul line to the pocket is best for business.
"Our machines can make lanes more consistent from day-to-day so the recreational bowler can stand in one area, throw the ball where he feels comfortable and see a good ball reaction," Janawicz said. "With bowling balls being as powerful as they are and the ability of machines to create easier lane conditions, a bowler can improve much faster than he used to."
What's more, balls have changed significantly over the years as well:
According to Charlie Finch, the owner of Charlie's Pro Shop at AMF Bradenton Lanes, modern ball technology also has a lot to do with the increase in averages.
Over the years, covers have evolved from rubber to plastic to urethane to reactive resin and particle urethane balls.
"The average bowler doesn't have a lot of rotation on the ball, but that particle is going to grab the lane a lot quicker than a conventional urethane or plastic," Finch said. "That is going to get the ball rolling more when it hits the pins rather than sliding, so you get a lot more pin action."
The bottom line for bowling tech enthusiasts is this is supposed to help attract people to the game:
When it comes to selling equipment, making it easier for someone to pick up a sport is what it's all about."The higher your score, the more you enjoy the game," said John Anderson, a shift manager at AMF Bradenton Lanes who carries a 184 average. "(Ball manufacturers) are coming out with a lot of new stuff to help a lot of people."
Richard Virenque, who won the King of the Mountain title at this year's Tour de France, says one of Lance's big advantages is superior technology:
Armstrong has also benefited from his team's attention to technology to reduce drag. "He leaves nothing to chance, from his helmet to the forks on his bike," said Richard Virenque, this year's "King of the Mountains,"(the best mountain climber on the tour - the seventh year in row)on French TV Saturday. "He is light years ahead of us" in technology.
I haven't seen the numbers comparing them, but I have to imagine other teams spend as much as USPS on technology and training. It's not like F1 where Ferrari is so much more dominant in terms of cash than its rivals. So while I've no doubt Lance has every state-of-the-art tech advance he wants, I'm skeptical it gives him a huge advantage. As he demonstrated in the last six stages, he's just far and away the strongest rider in the Tour.
Here's an interestong story on how athletes shy away from some supplements they'd otherwise be free to take because they can't be sure they won't trigger a positive dope test. Some folks are looking into helping nutraceutical firms and others make purer supplements. Be on the lookout for athletes to be taking more supplements in the future:
Like many elite athletes, she agonized over which pills and powders she could ingest without triggering a positive doping test.Experts say government regulation of nutraceuticals -- vitamins, herbal remedies, dietary supplements and other natural health products -- is slowly improving but remains woefully inadequate for the needs of athletes.
That's why some members of the sporting community are hoping manufacturers will regulate themselves, to guarantee the purity and efficacy of their products.
Perhaps the first example of such self-regulation in Canada was unveiled at a news conference in Winnipeg yesterday, as the makers of Cold-fX announced a study showing their pills full of bitter-tasting ginseng extract don't contain any banned substances.
It was an unusual study in an industry notorious for shoddy science. Grant Pierce, a sports researcher at the University of Manitoba, conducted clinical trials at arm's length from the company, CV Technologies Inc. His team gave the cold remedy to 40 recreational athletes under controlled condition for a month and tested their urine according to International Olympic Committee rules.
The results, to be published in the August edition of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, showed the athletes tested negative for about 200 banned substances.
Pierce said he wasn't paid anything by the company, which spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" on the project. He was also free to report his results if they were unfavourable.
"It provides an example for the nutraceutical industry that this is what they need to do make their compounds credible and show they're safe," Pierce said.
Phil Mickelson shares some thoughts on how technology has changed golf:
... think we will start playing longer courses, because as distances have increased over 10 percent, that has not happened to the golf courses."That has to be music to Bob Hope Chrysler Classic officials’ ears as they plan to add longer golf courses to their event starting in 2006. But it also gives some credence to the idea that the 7,000-yard golf course, once the gold standard for championship golf, will soon be nothing but tarnished brass.
"A 7,000-yard golf course would have to be 7,700 yards (today) to be what it was years ago," Mickelson said.
More than some other sports -- like, say, tennis -- golf can more easily adapt to new technologies because the field of play isn't set.
An interesting piece in Salon attempts to answer a question that's been on the minds of sports fans for some time:
To use the title of the bestselling book about the A's success for want of a better shorthand term: Where is the "Moneyball" revolution in the NBA?
This question goes for the NFL, NHL and other sports, too. But for basketball, the piece rightly points out that it's difficult to ape the same approach Bill James and Billy Beane mastered.
There's no denying that comparing basketball to baseball doesn't get you very far. That's because both sides of the "Moneyball" equation are very different in basketball than they are on the diamond."The science of basketball is not as consistent as baseball," says Dean Oliver, author of "Basketball on Paper," which uses Bill James-style, or sabermetric, statistical analysis on the NBA. Oliver and others who do this type of work point out that baseball is far easier to measure because most of what needs to be measured comes down a series of one-on-one confrontations between the pitcher and batter. Basketball is a flowing, team game, and it's difficult to figure out how much credit to assign to each player on the floor for a made basket or a defensive stop.
"I hear that when I talk to NBA people," Oliver says. "When I raise the fact that 'Moneyball' is working in baseball, they say, 'Baseball is very different than basketball.' And they're right."
All that's true so far as it goes, but I think a lot more can be done in psychological profiling for sports like the NBA, the kind of psychological profiling Mike Flanagan and the Baltimore Orioles are doing. Talented players are plentiful. But so are headcases. Kwame Brown, anyone? There has to be some way to refine tests that will help you determine when a great talent but potential disaster like Allen Iverson will become the Answer and when he'll become the questionable choice that gets a GM fired.
Ever since the story of Sid Finch - which turned out to be an April Fool's hoax -- I've been skeptical of stories about superhuman pitchers.
But this piece in the Economist is different. It discusses an interesting new development in cricket -- The Rawalpindi Express.
He has a normal head, but nestling between his massive shoulders it seems small. He is Shoaib Akhtar, “the Rawalpindi Express”, the fastest recorded bowler of a cricket ball in history... From 22 yards, Mr Akhtar launches into the weirdly beautiful contortion that fast bowlers perform to hurl a six-ounce lump of cork and leather at up to 100mph (161kph). Half a second later, the ball demolishes the stumps.For over two centuries, cricket has been played according to a largely unwritten code of honour for the practical reason that its laws are too complicated for officials to enforce to the letter. But technology has been rewriting the old etiquette. And according to some recent research, one of cricket's most basic laws is untenable, and now the game is in turmoil.
According to law 24.3, bowlers may not straighten their arm in the final act of delivering the ball. This leads to Mr Akhtar's brutal run-up and elaborate action as alternative means of generating pace on the ball. The centrality of law 24.3 to cricket—and the virtual impossibility of policing it—is reflected in the game's etiquette. To accuse a bowler of throwing the ball is one of the gravest insults in the game; yet now such accusations are flying thick and fast.
Mr Akhtar, the first man to bowl a delivery timed at 100mph, is one of a number of modern stars recently reported with “suspect actions”. These rulings followed research into biomechanics that match officials had hoped would vindicate their decision.
The rest of the story documents further problems with policing this sort of thing, despite the widespread understanding that it's happening. It's also interesting to see how tradition and etiquette can conflict with notions of fair play.
When Alcmene gave birth to the baby... she named him Herakles. (The Romans pronounced the name "Hercules," and so do we today.) ...she tried to kill the baby by sending snakes into his crib. But little Hercules was one strong baby, and he strangled the snakes, one in each hand, before they could bite him.
-- Perseus Digital Library
MEET BABY HERCULES!!
OK, not quite. But it's like some bad sci-fi comic. A German boy was recently found to have a genetic defect that prevents his muscle mass from going and going and going:
Somewhere in Germany is a baby Superman, born in Berlin with bulging arm and leg muscles. Not yet 5, he can hold seven-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat.DNA testing showed why: The boy has a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth...
The boy's mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin that limits muscle growth. The news comes seven years after researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore created buff "mighty mice" by "turning off" the gene that directs cells to produce myostatin.
"Now we can say that myostatin acts the same way in humans as in animals," said the boy's physician, Dr. Markus Schuelke, a professor in the child neurology department at Charite/University Medical Center Berlin. "We can apply that knowledge to humans, including trial therapies for muscular dystrophy."
The AP article reporting the story goes a little over the top when it says:
...athletes would almost surely want to get their hands on such a drug and use it like steroids to bulk up.
We're nowhere near athletes being able to use these sorts of things effectively. But it's certainly the direction we're heading. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for Steak-orade.
The Will Smith movie "I, Robot" -- based on the writing of sci-fi giant Isaac Asimov -- is getting mixed reviews. So Hollywood may want to think of tackling another Asimov work, The Super Runner in which a genetically enhanced athletes are:
gene-modified to have lungs like bellows, bulging muscles and immensely jacked-up metabolisms that allow them to perform feats of endurance and speed impossible to ordinary humans..
We're likely to see gene doping become an issue over the next two decades. So it would be good for Hollywood to get cracking now.
When someone advocates adopting technology to help with officiating in sports, usually there are two justifications. The first is that it would be fairer to the athletes who work so hard and put so much effort and passion into the game: they deserve the best officiating possible. The other is that fans deserve to have their teams treated fairly and not have a World Series or Super Bowl won or lost on a botched call.
Here's another interesting argument for using technology to help with officiating: it's fairer for the officials:
There is no doubt that the use of television replays would help reduce the number of mistakes made by officials and one can sympathise with the views of Clive Lloyd, who feels "it is time to use technology to the full extent"..The former West Indies captain is one of the International Cricket Council's four full-time match referees and he used Monday evening's annual Cowdrey "Spirit of Cricket" Lecture at Lord's as the stage on which to air his feelings.
"If technology is going to be used increasingly to reflect on the performance of the umpires - both by television and by officialdom - surely umpires should also have the opportunity to use it to improve on or supplement their performance," he said.
"How can it be right to ask an umpire to make a split-second decision based on his own eyesight and hearing when everyone else then judges and, if justified - and, sometimes, when unjustified - criticises that decision having made use of technology designed for that purpose?"
When Spike Lee's Mars Blackmon said "It's gotta be the shoes" I don't think he had this in mind:
Last month, the German athletic-gear company adidas unveiled its "1," a battery-powered running shoe equipped with digital sensors and a mini-motor that automatically adapts the tension in the sole to a runner's pace.VectraSense Technologies in Massachusetts followed on adidas' heels. It's touting a new all-purpose shoe that uses a computer chip to sense pressure on the sole and adjust the air pressure in chambers embedded in the toe and heel.
Hi-tech shoes may be more than just hi-tech faddishness. They might help old people stay upright:
In Providence, R.I., Afferent Corp. is developing vibrating shoe inserts to keep elderly walkers from falling. They're based on research by a Boston doctor, who showed that tiny, imperceptible vibrations on the bottoms of feet could stimulate elderly people's worn-down nerve endings and trigger natural balancing responses.
That's pretty cool. There's another group at MIT working in conjunction with other firms trying to create shoes that will generate energy for military applications:
Paradiso's team also devised a shoe that could generate a few milliwatts of electricity with each footfall. A California lab is taking the concept a step farther: It aims to market to the military a shoe that can power night-vision goggles, walkie-talkies or a global positioning system.
BTW: the Adidas shoes will retail for $250. The VectraSense shoes will retail for $450.
I am slow. And now I know why. It's my damn parents' fault.
Or, something like that, according to this piece in the Sacramento Bee that would make Al Campanis choke:
To have any chance of getting into the Olympics you have to pick the right parents. All the hard work and discipline and coaching, all the early nights and good nutrition and sacrifice - and you're only halfway there at best.
OK, OK, so genes play a role, a big one. But what I found most interesting in the piece is how much other nations try to steer young people into sports for which they might be best genetically 'suited':
Massimo Testa, an internationally known physician and director of the UC Davis Sports Performance Program, says hard work and desire can take an athlete only so far.... "Everybody can improve. That is the good thing," he said. "The bad news is there is an upper limit."In his native Italy, athletes are sized up early and steered toward certain sports far more than in the United States, said Testa, largely because this country has a much larger population and, thus, a greater talent pool.
"The American system can produce top athletes, but we don't know how many are wasted," he said.
Kenya, which has dominated the marathon and other long-distance events for years, places so much emphasis on sifting for genetic superstars that it has every Kenyan run a time trial before leaving high school, Shaffrath said. The good ones are encouraged to attend training camps, well aware that international success can bring monetary rewards to their impoverished villages.
Such evaluations are made only at the elite level in the United States, and the testing data are used to refine training programs to make successful athletes reach new heights.
All this makes me wonder what I would have been best at. Let's see, I can't run, I can't jump, I can't swim, I can't do a lot of things. So maybe speed chess?
According to a new study, adding protein to sports drink improves performance:
Adding protein to conventional sports drinks improves athletic performance and reduces post-exercise muscle damage, says a study in the July issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.The James Madison University study compared Gatorade to a new protein-containing sports drink called Accelerade in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study with bicycle athletes.
The cyclists drank either Gatorade or Accelerade and then completed an endurance test until they were exhausted. The athletes returned 15 hours later for a second endurance test. At that time, researchers took blood samples to measure CPK, a primary marker of muscle damage.
Those who drank Accelerade had a 29 percent improvement in endurance in the first exercise test and a 40 percent improvement in the second test, compared to those who drank Gatorade. The athletes who drank Accelerade had an 83 percent decrease in muscle damage compared to Gatorade drinkers.
I remember when I played soccer in grade school, all the parents would bring quartered oranges we would devour at halftime. We're a long way from those days I suppose.
Sorry for the delay in posting. I was in Bangkok, Thailand, attending a conference for about 10 days. While there, I was fortunate enough to have ringside seats for Thai kickboxing, a real treat. Speed, courage, blood, you name it, it was on display. I also went high up in the rafters into the area where fight fans are gambling on the bouts like they're trading cattle futures. It was nuts. There's not much of a tech angle, but it was cool nonetheless.
Roger Federer is the best tennis player in the game today and he showed it this weekend with his impressive win over Andy Roddick. I wrote a piece for Slate magazine on what's happening with tennis and technology. You can read about it here.
Men's tennis offers a cautionary tale for other sports. An absence of racket regulations has allowed the game to be transformed by technology. At this point, turning back the clock will be exceedingly difficult. Any fundamental changes to the game would lead to carping about the loss of tradition and resistance from players who've crafted a style of play for the game as it was presented to them.
Let me know your thoughts.
Interesting piece in USAT on NASCAR's efforts to keep expensive technology out of the sport.
Next year officials could place limits on the types of gears teams can use in an attempt to limit engine revolutions per minute. This would prevent larger teams from spending money to develop higher-revving engines that produce more horsepower. It's more important to have competitive racing than faster racing.Perhaps the most controversial idea NASCAR is considering: forcing teams to buy the center section of their chassis — the car's basic underbody frame — from an outside firm at a fixed price. Teams would build their own engines, suspension systems and body panels.
This is a problem for all motorsports. F1 has embraced technology fights, only to come to regret them and try to stuff the technological genie back in the bottle. NASCAR proceeds cautiously -- they are supposed to be "stock" cars, after all -- but faces some of the same problems of haves and have nots.
I have a piece in Slate magazine on Michael Schumacher and F1 racing.
Schumacher is nothing like Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, and the other motorsport legends he's now surpassed. Schumacher may be a remarkable driver, but, more important, he's a venture capitalist in a flame-retardant red jumpsuit.
Let me know your thoughts.
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